Ranulf Flambard - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

Ranulf worked to complete the cathedral which his predecessor, William de St-Calais, had begun; fortified Durham with a wall around Durham Castle, built Norham Castle to help defend the Tweed River; and endowed the collegiate church of Christchurch, Hampshire. He built or expanded other churches, including the one at Christchurch in Hampshire which he had endowed, and St. Martin's in Dover. The first stone bridge at Durham was completed by his instruction in 1120, the so-called Framwellgate Bridge, a bridge described as "of wonderful workmanship." He cleared and leveled the Palace Green in Durham between the castle and the cathedral. While the chroniclers mainly condemned Ranulf for his morals, his own cathedral chapter held him in high esteem because of his building activities and his defense of the rights of Durham. Although he usurped some of the income of the cathedral chapter, the money from those rights was used to complete the cathedral rebuilding, and later restored the income to the monks as well as increasing the endowment. At his death, the cathedral walls were complete up to "the covering", which probably means the vault instead of the roof.

Flambard attracted scholars to his household, and reformed the administration of the diocese, by dividing it into archdeaconries. Ranulf oversaw the translation of Saint Cuthbert's relics to a new tomb in a lavish ceremony. He was also a patron to the hermit Saint Godric, whom he befriended.

One of Ranulf's brothers was Fulcher, who was Bishop of Lisieux in 1101. Another brother was Osbern, who was a royal clerk for Rufus, and the last brother was Geoffrey. Fulcher may have been appointed bishop to enable Ranulf to exploit the see while Ranulf was in exile in Normandy. Ranulf had a son, Thomas, who also held the see of Lisieux, right after his uncle. Like his uncle, he may have been appointed as a placeholder to allow his father to appropriate the revenues of Lisieux. Ranulf's mistress was an Englishwoman named Alveva or Ælfgifu, who was the mother of at least two of his sons. Alveva's sons were Ranulf, who was an archdeacon, and Elias. When Ranulf became bishop, he married her to a burgess of Huntingdon, but remained on good terms with both Alveva and her spouse, often staying with them when he traveled away from Durham. Alveva was the aunt of Christina of Markyate, and Christina is said to have rebuffed the bishop's attempts to seduce her in 1114. Alveva and Ranulf's son Elias held a prebend at London and was a royal clerk under Henry I. Ranulf's son Ralf was parson of Middleham and held a prebend at London too. He was a member of Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury's household after 1138. Some of Ranulf's sons were educated at Laon under William de Corbeil, who was one of Ranulf's clerks. One of Ranulf's nephews, Ralf, was archdeacon of Northumberland and during the reign of King Stephen helped to hold the diocese of Durham loyal to Stephen. Other nephews were Osbert, who was sheriff of Durham, and Robert, Richard, and William who held fiefs. Unrelated to Ranulf, William of Corbeil became one of Ranulf's household clerks, and was eventually to be elected Archbishop of Canterbury in 1123.

Ranulf died on 5 September 1128. He was buried in his chapter house in Durham, where his tomb was opened in 1874. His skeleton is still extant, and examination of it reveals that he would have been about 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) tall. He was fond of clothes and was always richly dressed. While he was efficient in collecting the royal revenues, he was generous to his own men, and later in life gave liberally to the poor. His crozier and signet ring were found in his grave, and they were rather plain. An oddity of his grave was that he was buried on top of a layer of charcoal that was laid over alternating layers of lime and dirt.

Ranulf's reputation has suffered because of the hostility of the monastic chroniclers to both himself and to Rufus. Many chroniclers decried his financial ruthlessness and his lax morals. Orderic described Ranulf's career as "addicted to feasts and carousals and lusts; cruel and ambitious, prodigal to his own adherents, but rapacious in seizing the goods of other men". Besides the chroniclers, Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury wrote to Pope Paschal II, while Ranulf was in exile, describing Ranulf as "a rent collector of the worst possible reputation." William of Malmesbury said that Flambard was a "plunderer of the rich, destroyer of the poor". Victorian historians, including E. A. Freeman, vilified Ranulf, and Freeman especially held that Ranulf was a "malignant genius". Modern historians have embraced a more moderate view, starting with Richard Southern in 1933. The historian David Bates felt that he, along with his successor Roger of Salisbury, "were essentially the chief managers of the king's finance and justice".